As a conservative, President Barack Obama’s re-election was one of the most disappointing experiences of my life.

As a black American, my sorrow was only amplified.

Just look at President Obama’s economic track record. Look at the unemployment rate during Obama’s first term. Throughout his first four years as the nation’s CEO, the official unemployment rate rested almost exclusively between eight and ten percent — with data showing the inclusion of those leaving the workforce altogether out of despair actually made the number much higher.

He promised much better. But then asked for more time.

Despite being carried to re-election by a nearly unanimous black vote, black unemployment under President Obama was a staggering 14.3 percent in the month before his re-election. Young black men are being hit particularly hard by unemployment.

A white liberal incumbent president with such an abysmal economic track record would be slaughtered for such a performance. He was. Remember Jimmy Carter’s 1980 landslide loss to Ronald Reagan? Yet Obama cruised to a fairly easy win. The fact that it was black America carrying Obama to victory that leaves me flabbergasted.

To add insult to injury, the Reverend Al Sharpton sees fit to not blame the stubbornly high black and Hispanic unemployment rates on Obama’s policies, but on conservatives! In a recent radio interview, Sharpton said:

[Obama’s] increased jobs and found jobs — unemployment has gone down in the private sector. What has not gone down is [unemployment] in the public sector and blacks in particular are disproportionately in the public sector.

One of the reasons those jobs have gone down or have remained down is one, the Republicans are cutting a lot of the agencies where we are the employees of government jobs… [W]hat we’ve got to do… is take on these governors and mayors as well as the private sector on why the private sector is getting all these contracts and bailouts and not hiring and correcting the disproportionate amount of their employment does not touch our community and have the President and them support us in that.

Really?

I’ll overlook that Sharpton, like most liberal elitists, seems ignorant of basic economic principles. Otherwise, he would know Obama’s big government, tax-and-spend policies — such as the failed stimulus, his existing taxes and his proposed $1.6 trillion in tax hikes on corporations and small businesses (derisively called “the rich”) and Obamacare — are primarily to blame for high unemployment rates overall and a disproportionately high black unemployment in particular.

If the Reverend Alfred Charles Sharpton, Jr. were to read black economist Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy, Sharpton would know that more taxes will make it nearly impossible for any businesses to generate investment activity and create jobs needed to expedite our nation’s economic recovery — something the public sector cannot.

But I digress.

My primary beef with the illogic of people such as Sharpton is the racially condescending insinuation that black Americans are not cut out for corporate America — that only a good public sector (read: government) job will ensure black America’s socioeconomic survival. Tell that to former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who had a fabulously successful career in corporate America — up to and including becoming president and CEO (and later part-owner) of Godfather’s Pizza.

Forget the “fiscal cliff.” Black America already plunged over the cliff of political skullduggery, propelled by intellectual buffoonery. It’s on a collision course with economic calamity by reelecting an inexperienced community activist to the White House.

That dinosaurs of the modern-day civil rights establishment such as Al Sharpton are still found relevant by the mainstream media only adds urgency to the need for those of us who care about our country to strap on the parachutes of our own economic security plans and pull the chord.

It’s going to be a crash landing before Obama’s second term is over.

Darryn “Dutch” Martin, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network, is a former member of the American diplomatic corps.

In an increasingly secular America — where moral absolutes have vanished — it is not surprising that same-sex marriage referendums recently passed in Maryland, Washington and Maine.

After all, noted theologian N.T. Wright said, “by itself, human reason can no more be guaranteed to tell us which way to go than a compass in a room full of strong magnets.”

A recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found approximately one in five Americans — roughly 33 million people — have no religious affiliation. Of those, 13 million consider themselves atheist or agnostic. That’s a lot of people without spiritual grounding!

Furthermore, the gravitas of the “Catholic vote,” once coveted by politicians and which struck fear into the hearts of the church leadership’s political opposition, has dissipated like a morning dew — leaving only memories of its former power. And, because of black pastors who place political expedience ahead of theological integrity, the mythic “black church” seems to have turned from a sanctuary from life’s turmoil to a directionless moneychangers den of thieves.

Lacking a moral compass, there’s a general assumption now that we are all good people and any behavior can be countenanced no matter how abhorrent it may be to others. That being said, I don’t fault individuals merely following their id because no one is there to caution them otherwise.

I don’t really fault those seeking same-sex marriages. I don’t fault the non-religious. I fault those whom God placed in a position of authority over the past 50 years who failed to do what was required and expected of them.

There are many to blame for society’s current wanderings.

First, politicians sold out. Then, community leaders sold out. Now, the religious establishment is selling out. In the span of mere generations, a population grew up without any true moral leadership. This has put the nation in the treacherous position it is in today.

Specifically, I fault teachers who let kids graduate from high school without the ability to read. I fault politicians more concerned with reelection than properly tending to our tax dollars. I further fault politicians who use the office the American people gave them to merely gather accolades and largess rather than serve constituents’ best interests.

I also fault pastors more obsessed with preaching about politics than the gospel.

When people of faith emerge from their homes and look — mouths agape — at the world around them, wondering about the current state of affairs, I lament the systemic and chronic “responsibility fail” that got us into this mess.

At some point, people must realize the consequences of the their actions.

Rome was undoubtedly an amazing and fun place back in the year 350 A.D. But paganism, lack of gratitude, hedonism, monetary troubles and military problems along with a covetous world eventually took its toll on Roman society.

Most people educated enough to have studied this sort of thing in college (or even high school) history seem inclined to ignore the parallels and seem unwilling to confront the current peril.

Chapter four of St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians reminds us that our political and religious leaders should not preach about themselves, but rather about the Lord and that the “excellency of the power” and wonder of our nation is of God and not us.

Our nation’s Founding Fathers recognized this when they acknowledged that we are endowed by our Creator with an inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit is not an entitlement because it is understood to exist within the framework of our moral and social fabric.

With prayer, we can weather this moral tsunami. We can because — though we may be hard-pressed on every side — we are not yet crushed. We may be perplexed, but we are not yet completely in despair. We may be persecuted, but we are not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

Archbishop Council Nedd II, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network, is the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Church and the chairman of In God We Trust.

On December 1, the Fox Sports columnist penned a column about what happened earlier that morning when Jovan Belcher — the starting linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs — murdered his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins (the mother of his three-month-old daughter), and then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and killed himself.

In his piece, Whitlock questioned and lamented how the NFL and the Chiefs decided to play their scheduled game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. He argued the appropriate thing to do was cancel the game.

So far, no harm no foul.

But, instead of questioning the unjustified reasons why Jovan Belcher would kill the mother of his daughter and then turn the gun on himself (or sticking just to the sporting angle), Whitlock took the opportunity to lament gun violence — as if the gun was used independently and without cooperation of Jovan Belcher’s hands and mind.

Whitlock also lamented America’s “gun culture” — a culture he never thoroughly explained yet passively blamed them for “more and more domestic disputes [ending] in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead.” Again, Whitlock acted as if guns kill people independently of their owners.

On December 3, Whitlock doubled-down on his politically correct, logically-deficient and morally-deficient position and further exposed his lack of intellectual credibility for all to see. During CNN-contributor Roland Martin’s podcast, Whitlock likened the National Rifle Association to… the KKK.

That’s right, the Ku Klux Klan. Telling Martin “I did not go as far as I’d like to go” with his column, Whitlock unload — implying the NRA is responsible for arming black youths with guns used to kill other black youths. He also seemed to blame the NRA for not only gifting black kids with guns, but also supplying them with drugs.

Aside from the embarrassing and unadulterated stupidity of Whitlock’s comments, he proceeded to take illogical leaps with absolutely no connected dots to verify his recklessness. He unjustly made racist and conspiratorial accusations about an organization that advocates gun safety and responsible use as well as protects gun rights.

What Whitlock claimed about the NRA was morally indefensible. It stripped him of any remaining credibility after an already-shaky opening salvo. The irony is that Whitlock is the one thinking in racial terms when he assumed only whites are, or can be, members of the NRA.

That said, where’s his proof the NRA is arming black youths? Has he read it? If so, where and when did he read it? Are these incidents in the police reports of gun crimes committed by black youth? If so, publish these police reports.

I’m willing to bet that the black youths on Chicago’s South Side, who are doing their best at contributing to the city’s sky-high black murder rate, aren’t card-carrying members of the NRA. How can they be? They’re black!

Furthermore, as he did in his original piece, Whitlock turns those who would use guns to settle disputes into victims as opposed to willing participants who chose guns over knives, clubs or bare hands in their acts of violence, terror and destruction.

Once again, guns don’t kill people without human participation. Belcher wasn’t a victim. He intentionally used his gun to kill his girlfriend and himself. And, as much as Whitlock would try and paint the picture, the drug-addled and armed black youths he laments aren’t victims of racist white gun-club members bent on destroying black communities.

Criminals consciously make decisions to use guns illegally, and — as a result — are responsible for their own actions.

Jason Whitlock should apologize to the families of Kasandra Perkins and Jovan Belcher — in that order — for using them as political pawns to advocate more gun control. He should then apologize to the NRA for his baseless, deliberate and absurd smear of the NRA’s credibility.

The consequence of Jason Whitlock’s thinking inevitably disarms law-abiding citizens, ensuring more gun violence. This is the exact opposite of what Whitlock claims he wants, and would ensure there will be more victims like Kasandra Perkins.

Derryck Green, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network, received a M.A. in Theological Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing his doctorate in ministry at Azusa Pacific University.